"What a fascinating device you've come across." Although the swirling mass of darkness possessed no tone or presence, Grue seemed amused as it regarded where my blasting rod had ineffectually struck it. "That's the level of tenacity I've come to expect from you, Broken One, but please save those morsels for later."
"Stop calling me that!" Dave shook his head, holding back my hoof from grabbing another blasting rod. "When I'm done here, you'll be the one that's broken."
His look said that we’d get out of this if we just kept it together. A subtle twitch of his head led me to notice the volatile bundle of cloth sitting behind me.
"How would learning make us more filling?" Twilight scoffed, taking a tentative step forward. She had noticed how useless my blasting rods were, and any of her magic would likely have the same result. With any luck, she would had also noticed the bomb.
The three of us exchanged looks of confusion when it didn't reply right away. "It has been long since I have conversed in this matter. If the memories are correct, you should find a vague analogy in the feeding habits of the ones known as changelings, but instead of emotions, I require information."
Something about this thing felt like deja vu of a different case of deja vu.
Hopefully, a plan was brewing within Twilight’s head, because mine had nada. It was time to waste time until one of us had an idea. "You won't find a lot of that here, so let us go and get lost." When it didn’t react, I waved my hooves. "Shoo!"
"No. This universe is just the next in a long line of meals. I have devoured more than you could possibly comprehend. Even your concept of infinity is an infinitesimal speck compared to the truth." A sense of finality filled the area as it drew itself up, looming over us . "No creature, let alone one as broken as you, of any realm can hold sway over me."
"Leave her be." Twilight growled, lowering her head and flaring her horn in warning. "Why are you doing this? What did we ever do to you?" She regarded its words with curiosity. "And what is your problem with Sterling?" The emphasis on my name brought me a small smile despite the situation.
"Problem? If I were capable of gratitude, the Broken One would be one of those who has unwittingly earned it. As I said, there is nothing you could do to me. This is not petty revenge or malice. I do not wish to spread good or evil, order or chaos. Equestria has something I desire, and I am taking it."
I hadn't heard anything beyond the first two sentences. My ears folded back as the words played themselves over and over in my head like a cassette tape used one too many times. "How have I helped you?"
"Don't listen to it, Sterling. It's a lie."
"How?" Truth be told, I didn't think I was capable of being that loud.
"You wouldn't have made it from your home if it weren't for me. You believed you made it through the end of your world on your will alone?" I wanted it to maniacally laugh or do something different than remain unnervingly passive. "It is odd you have survived for this long—much longer than any other vessel."
It hadn’t just been my nerves. I really had helped this thing. Accident or not, it was my fault all those ponies and diamond dogs weren’t coming back. Dave had been right—we’d been used.
"Vessel?" Twilight’s voice wavered, uncertain whether to pity or hate me.
"I have been searching for something more than sustenance. Something extremely rare even among an eternity of eternities. I believe you call it magic." Grue was polite enough to pause for our gasps. "It is my ambrosia, but such a difficult meal to capture in any decent quantity. Most realities only have a meager few drops to consume."
Twilight felt miles away as she tilted her head toward me. "And what does this have to do with Sterling?" My thoughts were rebelling from the evidence, and her words went in one ear and out the other.
"Can you not see it? The Broken One is not from your world. They are the only possible vessel—the one that I have long waited for, world after world, dimension after dimension. Enough of the original being survived my presence to not only endure the Between, but also ferry me past the barrier."
How much of my survival was me, and how much was Grue? I hadn't known what those nudges were, but what did the origin matter when they’d promised a way off that dying rock? What if it wasn't just one lone survivor this thing had influenced? How much had Grue manipulated to get here?
"How long?" This knowledge could break me, but I needed it. I had to know for the sake of everybody.
"Far over a thousand days. It would have taken less if it weren't for that errant thoughtform my intrusion birthed." Its words vibrated with anger and frustration, sending violent ripples through the fabric of whatever surface we stood on. The waves winked out like someone had flipped a switch from 'maelstrom' to 'calm'. "But there is nothing left for their guidance to hinder, and they will also be consumed."
The background whispers steadily grew stronger and threatened to overwhelm me as I gritted my teeth to ignore them. Twilight and Dave looked like they couldn't hear the same, but why? Twilight had a whole different mindset, so it was possible she could easily ignore the whispers, but the scowling human was my imaginary friend so shouldn't he have the same reaction? What part was Dave though?
The line between seeking answers and buying time for Twilight was rapidly blurring. "What did you do to me? And what does Dave have to do with it?" She continued to regard our conversation with tenuous awareness, her eyes flicking between the rest of us. Her mouth twitched as she murmured plan after failed plan to herself.
"A name for something little more than a bundle of ideas? Fascinating. When I finished setting your world in its proper motion—"
Screaming all manner of profanities and war cries, which melded together into a single angered scream, I lunged at Grue. Would it be hurt? Definitely not, but none could say I refused to try.
The ground pitched up under my hooves and I tripped, stumbling painfully before something picked me up and bashed me against another surface while Grue watched patiently. It threw me against something once more before casually tossing me back to the others, who immediately rushed to my side.
Neither hoof nor hand could touch me before I charged again, despite their protests.
"Enough." Tendrils wrapped around my rear leg, the sudden stop nearly wrenching it out of its socket. There was barely any time to wonder why fate hated that particular limb before a sickening crunch filled me with a wave of pain.
"You… you killed everyone!" It wouldn’t keep me down—there were still three limbs in working condition. "Anne, my parents, my friends, that funny guy at the gas station. Do you have any idea how long it's been since I've had a microwave burrito? Everything is gone, and it's your fault!"
Blind rage fueled me forward, anger and adrenaline drowning out the searing agony as I clumsily rushed Grue again. Raw emotion poured out of my mouth instead of the heinous threat I'd intended.
"Sterling! Just stop… we can't do anything to it." Twilight didn't even need magic to hold me down once I'd been tossed back to them, beaten once again and having my unfortunate leg broken even further and twisted painfully. How much of the bone was still intact? Hopefully, it would just buff out with magic.
The object of my anguish stood before me, so close and yet farther than the horizon. Looking like the fruits teased in front of Tantalus, Grue silently watched as I sobbed, my anger turning to frustration and then hopelessness. It paid no mind to the angry glares Dave threw its way while Twilight comforted me. "If you wish to continue your futile assault, you should know there are still three limbs I have yet to disable. Your physical condition means nothing to me."
"Bastard…" Sparks of rage arced between him and Grue.
"Oh, that's right. Before I was interrupted, I was explaining how you came to be. With the proper events in motion… no interruptions? Very well then." Not that I didn't try, but my energy had been too thoroughly drained by the beatings for me to even stand. "It was time to seek my next vessel. When I found you, I knew you were the one needed.
"A mind is such a strange container—ever-full and yet ever-growing. Room needed to be made. Removing parts from a mind is a difficult endeavor. Cutting out too much of any one aspect causes the rest of the mind to unravel, but I've had much practice. Too much logic and you'd question the suggestions. Too much restraint and the hesitation would result in your death. Pointless memories, obsolete skills, and anything else that was extra were removed."
My gut churned. Grue had treated my mind like a pizza, removing any topping it disliked, and it was a picky eater. How much more of a person had I been before it came along? How incomplete was I?
"Usually the excess disperses, leaking off into surrounding area and vanishing, but your tenacity kept this excess together. Instead of dissolving, it collected just enough ambient substance to create most of a being. A physical form would forever be out of its reach, and it knew straying too far would be the end of its accidental existence. And so it remained around the mind it had been created from, now altered enough to have room for myself."
Lost in the thoughts of what could have been, I tentatively listened to Grue. Each word that made it through drove another spike through my thoughts. I could almost feel myself losing my grip on any shred of hope that remained, like they were being siphoned off as we spoke.
"You're sick. You dissected her mind, used her, and ripped her from her home and body!"
"The Broken One's current form is not of my doing."
"How did it happen if it wasn't you then?"
Dave looked between Grue and the bomb. With however it saw its surroundings, Grue seemed to hardly notice him unless he actively spoke out. He crept toward the bomb.
"Do you know where we are, Princess Twilight Sparkle? Of course you don't, realities with that level of universal awareness are a rarity."—The snubbed pony huffed—"Inbetween yours and the Broken One's Realities, and every other reality as well, is an entirely different plane. Even those who thought they had mastered interdimensional travel were still stuck in only a small cluster of universes. Currently, we are in an area of my own creation outside the realm you are familiar with, yet not in the Between.”
“What is the Between?”
“Tell me, where do ideas come from?"
Twilight had to think for a minute before she came up with an answer satisfying to her. "Logical thought or inspiration should be the primary methods. But wha—"
"Incorrect. Those may help one obtain a specific idea, but they do not create them. Ideas are just information that has travelled between universes, and they are the only thing that can do so freely. Any idea anything has ever had has travelled through the Between, and before you insist they must have started somewhere, not everything has a beginning and an end. Some things just are. Every universe is giving and receiving this precious energy, even from itself at different times."
"How could something travel through time so easily? Forwards or backwards, it's almost too much to believe, and I have visited the past." Her eyes widened slightly as she spotted Dave slowly sneaking off to the side with a bundle of cloth under his arm.
"Physical beings always possess the simplest, linear perception of time. They may believe time is on its way to being understood, but even if they succeed, how they experience it cannot change. This isn't as simple as travelling beyond the edge of a universe—many of them are infinite. The few dimensions you view your surroundings in are too insufficient to grasp the complex structure of these forces."
"If what you say is true—"
"It is. Truth tastes better than falsehoods."
We shuddered at the reminder we were nothing more than snacks to this thing.
Twilight's legs were starting to shake. "If what you say is true, wouldn't it be possible for the very idea received to turn around and propogate itself?"
"It does happen."
Dave had almost made it halfway by the time I checked on him again. It looked like Grue’s vision was based on movement. Twilight had shut down to comprehend every fact Grue had fed her, or she just had a migraine.
The hopelessness still weighed me down like an anchor, but Dave hadn’t reached his target. There wasn’t any more time for self-pity, and it was up to me to continue the questioning, despite how appealing it was to curl up into a ball and take my lumps until the nightmare was over.
"What does that have to do with how I got turned into a pony?" I could lose myself for hours in the whispers nibbling at my ears, and they only grew in number as time went on. It was like carrying too many items—trying to get a hold on one that got loose only caused you to drop the others.
"Sentient beings and creatures are not the only ones capable of ideas."
"So Equus?"
"And every other world is just as capable of receiving information. Why do you think you recognize so much of the fauna and flora? This isn't the first world where the focal species has tools they lack the proper appendages to use. That is not to say you will see the same things everywhere, but it would be difficult to find two completely dissimilar universes. Even the primary language remains relatively unchanged."
"That's weird… but what does that have to do with me?"
"Even further restricting the differences is the set of constants. There is always a focal species. There is always this language. There is always—"
"A lighthouse?" Whatever Grue had for a hand met whatever it had for for a face.
"Do you understand what I am telling you? Or are my words wasted while your companion recovers?"
"No need to be a dick about it." It probably wasn't a good idea to tick off something planning on eating me, but meh.
"Whatever species you thought you were, your species did not change, the focal species of the current universe did. Since you needed to remain as such, your body changed to follow the new laws."
"So what my univ—old universe considered humans is the same as what this one considers ponies?" I was going to need a drink after the mess was over.
"Correct."
Twilight recovered from her issue for the chance to answer one of the questions that had been bothering her. "And her original body didn't influence her new one, so odds were she was going to end up as a mare due to our gender ratios."
"Wait, nothing special? Just probability?" Except for a few key issues, the switch in gender didn’t bother me. Still, it was upsetting to hear I'd lost my balls to a roll of the dice.
"If you call travelling from a different universe because of a monster who destroys worlds nothing special, then yes." At least she was still in good enough spirits to roll her eyes at me.
"Also correct. It is excellent you two are learning so much. This will be an excellent meal, but I think you could still use a little more seasoning." Learning pointless trivia wouldn’t be near as much fun anymore. "Two beings steeped in information, yet so different. You would find one of you to be like an aged wine, the other an overnight marinade."
"I'm not sure if I should be insulted or not." Dave was getting so close, but his pace slowed as he drew nearer. There was no way to tell how long it would take for him to get set up. He just needed to keep going. "But, what?"
"It's simple, really. The Broken One has been through the Between, and the Between has been through the Broken One. Raw information is a part of you, greedily soaked up by your body as you struggled to keep your mind intact. It's not the same as knowing something, as nearly all of it will still be indecipherable even if it manages to seep into your thoughts.
“Princess Twilight Sparkle, you have been absorbing knowledge since the day you were born, your hunger for information is greater than any other being on your world. Day after day, week after week, your intelligence and flavor grew."
We'd had more than enough of being compared to an entrée. "What did you do to the others you took?" It was a struggle to stay calm, but a deep breath helped. "They're gone, aren't they?" I'd already figured as much, but confirmation would still be saddening.
"Quite. Their fate was the same as the one you are soon to meet."
"What did you do to them?" Twilight's tone and expression were level, but if anything were under her hoof, it would have been ground to a fine powder. A glowering flame shunted aside the twinkle of curiosity in her eyes, granting her a glare that would have convinced King Sombra to give up and just purchase a Grow-Your-Own-Crystal Kit.
"You've met what was left. I don't feast like some ravening beast, rending flesh and bone with razor teeth. First I strip the essence—something some have called the soul. This leaves a hollow shell, and when I devour the shell, consuming every last trace of wholesome magic permeating all beings on this world, the hollow remains."
"Those… things that attacked us at the inn were the missing ponies?" I couldn't help but wince as Twilight figured it out. There's denial, and then there's whatever Twilight had been caught up with.
"And changelings." Grue paid no mind to Twilight's angry quaking. "It's a shame I ran out of griffons and diamond dogs, they would have made short work of your defense." I could add changelings and griffons to the list of species I’d helped kill.
"How could you? All those lives, snuffed out just for your own desires. How can you live with yourself?"
"I do not live, I exist."
"Mark my words, we will stop you. And if Gears and I can't, my friends will." A magenta aura covered her horn as she readied several spells, the nearly complete matrices buzzing through her mind begging to be completed and have their energy released.
"And what do you plan on doing? Your magic can’t affect me. I've absorbed so much of it already from not just this world, but the combined dregs of countless others. This domain is a testament to how much power I have gained, how much knowledge I have gleaned from all those minds. A realm neither inside or outside another." There was a strange sound and our surroundings shimmered, the colors lightening a shade. Was it laughing? "Or perhaps you expected that belligerent thoughtform to sneak up on me with the intent of using that explosive device."
Dave gasped as he was ripped off his feet and dangled in front of Grue. He clutched at the invisible noose around his neck while his feet kicked helplessly. He was rotated until he faced us, his eyes surprisingly bereft of fear. The calm on his face was unnerving, and it was my turn to gasp when it dawned on me it wasn’t calm. It was acceptance.
"Let him go!" One of my good hooves stamped, secretly checking how much weight my mangled leg could take. It could support little more than nothing, but even that wasn't bad for something that looked like it had been run through a rusty woodchipper twice.
As pointless and painful as the charge would be, Dave needed me. With any luck, it would break its concentration long enough to get him out of there. No amount of pain or damage was too much for saving him.
Collection of thoughts or not, he was my closest friend and had seen me through the most trying times of my life. As much as Grue wanted to believe he had controlled me, Dave was the one to thank for my survival.
"This is where it ends. I grow peckish and need something to tide me over until you two are finished." It watched with amusement as a magic glow surrounded the flailing human and tugged. "That won't be necessary." Twilight gasped as her hold on Dave vanished, and the backlash smacked her off her hooves.
Determination on his features, Dave writhed harder, but his struggles lessened as he was smashed into the ground not one, not two, but five times. Being imaginary didn't stop the blood freely flowing from his mouth and nose. He coughed as Grue's grip shifted from his neck to his torso.
Noticing he could speak again, he managed to weakly smile and choke out. "Light up a big one for me, kid."
"Dave!" It was hard to tell which hurt more: my leg or the scene before me.
Time slowed to a crawl as he gave one final smirk, and then Grue mercilessly ripped him apart. Each piece dissolved and disappeared like a small pile of sand in a windstorm. Dave was gone. My best friend, my aegis against everything clawing at my psyche, and he was dead.
Twilight's magic easily contained me, halting my attack before it could even begin. She couldn't understand how much Grue had just taken from me, after it had claimed so much else. It would pay, no matter the cost. Tears were in both our eyes as I glared and screamed for her to let me go. Droplets flicked left and right as she shook her head and sniffled.
What was the point of Dave's sacrifice if Grue already knew of the device? We could have just said 'here, have a snack' and the result would have been the same except Dave would still be here. I was furious at myself for letting events pass as they did. I could have stopped him. I should have stopped him.
But this wasn't the time for regrets. My teeth ground together as I squeezed the tears from my eyes. We still had a job to do.
"That was an interesting meal. No physical experiences to muddy the waters. No need to fret, you two. My methods won't be near as… messy when it's your turn." The bundle of cloth floated in front of Grue as it began to unravel. "Now let's see what you'd planned on using. A wealth of magic energy. Have you learned nothing? Magic suffuses me, it cannot harm or hinder me."
Bewildered, I glanced to Twilight, who had a similar expression. I’d thought everything it'd devoured had simply vanished or been digested in some way, not became a part of it. Furthermore, was Grue really capable of absorbing the gargantuan amount of magic Twilight had stored within the device? With that much magic, how much more the bastard would be capable of.
The gem hovered, slowly bobbing up and down, as a lavender vapor leaked from the thaumite jutting out of the gem. Grue slowly absorbed the magic, curiously wondering aloud why the flow was so low. This was it, this was our one chance to stop it. One final gambit and we could either go home or cease to exist.
"Twilight… blow it up already!" Fortunately, Grue was too absorbed in its meal to pay us any mind, greedily sucking down the energy the moment it left the gem.
Twilight’s horn sparked to life, and a thread of her magic connected her and the gem as she fed magic into it as quickly as possible. Seconds crawled by as I watched the distant gem for any sign of cracking. It gradually grew brighter as she overcame how much Grue was draining, but it was slow progress.
"Sterling, I—I can't keep this up long enough to overfill it." She grunted as sweat dripped down her brow and off her muzzle, ignoring what we stood on and falling into the void.
The trigger that was designed to set off the device in case either magic user was unable caught my eye. Surely a bigger blasting rod would have enough juice to push the cobalt jewel past its limit. Clumsily aiming towards the floating gem, I squinted and tried to steady the unwieldy thaumite. Debilitating pain and maddening murmurs distracted me as I tried again and again to line up with the thaumite leading into the gem.
"Zero chance of hitting it from this far away, and I don't think I can get close enough. Anyway you can suck this thing dry before Grue notices what we're doing?"
Her words were more strained than the first time she’d overloaded a gem. "Grue? Whatever, I'll ask if we get out of this. I can't drain the magic from things like it can, but if you shoot me with it, I might be able to convert and direct the energy. Just make sure you hit my horn."
Now that was a target I could hit. The magic cannon pointed straight at her horn, still wreathed in her waning energy. Gulping, I steadied myself and cautiously closed the two ends of the circuit together, trying not to screw up the shot while doing so.
The smaller blasting rods hardly made a sound. It was like a large firecracker going off, or maybe a bit louder—there had been many complaints in Ponyville, so it was possible my hearing was fading. They had a kick too, enough to leave a welt or a bruise, or if you were really unlucky, catch a sharp chunk of thaumite in your skin.
This thing was at least five times the size of a regular one, and it kicked like a bionic mule.
It sent me tumbling away from Twilight, making me cry out each time the ground jarred my leg. My forelegs they had nearly been ripped from their sockets. Thaumite shrapnel had sliced up my entire front, and I'd even heard a few shards ping off my goggles.
As much as it looked like I was really bad at shaving, there wasn't too much blood staining my coat as I groaned and stood. It took a bit to recover from the sudden dizziness, and when I looked towards Twilight, my mouth dropped open, pulling at the fresh cuts.
Her horn was hidden behind a pulsating, miniature sun, and her eyes were blazing white slivers as she squinted from the brightness. Yelps of pain interspersed between strained breathing as she tried to gain control over the extra energy.
It looked like she was moments away from critical mass before she let loose one final scream and the sphere of magic rushed down the thread connecting her to the gem, like a bulge travelling through a cartoon hose. The connection vanished as the orb travelled, drawing up the path as it went. Twilight sagged, but somehow remained standing and trotted to me as the first twinkling crack rang out.
"What is this?" Grue asked with its signature lack of emotion. No fear, no anger, just curiosity over the failing gem.
As the sapphire reached its final moments, the voices only I could hear surged forth once more, and I collapsed with my hooves over my ears. Twilight didn't need to be reminded to put up a shield.
"So much power… and it will be mine."
An abominable scream that would haunt us for the rest of our days pierced our ears as the first blast raced along the connection and used Grue’s plundered magic as fuel, poetically tearing it apart more violently than it had Dave. The disturbed nitroglycerin eagerly joined the azure flames, and the force of the second detonation sent cracks spider-webbing across Twilight's shield and utterly annihilated every trace of the defenseless being that had found itself empty of magic for the first time in eons.
She screamed at the forces hammering against her barrier, pouring all the energy she had left into keeping us unharmed. Her shield failed just as the blast ended, and she crumpled, her legs no longer able to support her weight.
"It's gone…" All that remained was the prismatic cloud of loose magic permeating the area, and I nearly lost my balance shaking Twilight. "We did it! It's over."
The free energy rushed toward the most receptive container the entire demi-plane, and Twilight let out a wail that would send a banshee to buy noise-cancelling headphones. The magic she had fed into the gem not long ago, the magic she'd already stored in the gem, and the magic Grue had taken from the beings of not just Equus, but every reality that hadn't stopped it all flooded into her. The influx quickly filled up her depleted reserves, but even her unnaturally large resevoir had only scratched the surface of what sought purchase in her battered body.
"Twilight!" Wild magic stopped me from getting too close to her, and it visibly danced through her fur, splaying out her mane and tail like she was in a storm.
No matter what I tried, I couldn't get close until she'd absorbed every last drop of magic, her eyes rolling up in her head as she passed out. Trying to rouse her sent jolts of energy through my forelegs like when tinkering with thaumite, but far more potent.
The voices screamed out at me in so many languages as the walls quaked. My mind screamed for it to shut up. This place wasn’t supposed to exist, and everything supporting it was gone, absorbed into the unconscious princess before me. A rift in the weakest part of space tore open as it tried to absorb all that resembled what had kept it together for so long. Beyond the hole, there was a blurry view of a familiar crater.
"Twilight, get up! Our way out is here!" She remained dead to the world. “Don’t make me drag you.”
The tail in my mouth tickled my nose in a very inappropriate attempt to make me sneeze. Every step towards the portal was as agonizing as it was difficult. I was battered, bloodied, bruised, beaten, and broken, but the two of us were getting out of there.
The rift loomed just in front of me, dauntingly challenging me to lift the dragging pony through its yawning maw. On a normal day, it probably wouldn’t be much trouble to heave a pony Twilight’s size, but the day had been far from normal.
The steadily shrinking rim caught my attention before a better plan came to mind. Of course it was shrinking. I could only hope Twilight hadn’t eaten too much at breakfast.
Time ticked by as I worked my head under her and tried to just force her through. Failing that, I sighed in resignation and grabbed her in my forelegs. At the rate our exit was shrinking, there would be little room to leave after her, but there’d already been enough sacrifice.
Incomparable pain clawed at me as I was forced to stand on what remained of my rear leg to shove her through. I was barely lucid, my throat was raw from screaming, and the tears made it hard to see anything but blurred colors. I’d had better days.
More exhausted than ever before, I took the opportunity to cuss one last time at the screaming voices before climbing through the rift, which was just barely large enough.
The stale cave air made me cough and sputter, and I tasted the lingering ancient death that still hung heavily throughout the cavern. Couldn't give up yet though, I still wasn't all the way back in Equestria. Fighting the last of Grue's influence flowing against me, my tail got out a second before it would have been too late.
I didn't want to know why the suction was affecting me so strongly while Twilight was peacefully laying on the rocky ground, but it wouldn't best me. The others were still missing, probably taking refuge.
With a grunt, I yanked my good leg free, feeling it scrape against the edges of the tear. One leg to go. A pained shout and another yank failed to completely dislodge me.
An excruciating pressure closed in on my trapped leg.
"No no no no—" Screams interrupted my words, only to sputter out as pain overwhelmed my senses.
The sound of crunching flesh and bone made me empty my stomach. Everything was fading. I could barely recognize the ground rushing up to meet my face.
At least the voices didn’t follow me into blissful unconsciousness.